


Always

by Kyoki777



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Betrayal, Childhood Friends, F/M, Major character death - Freeform, ghost story
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-02-07
Updated: 2019-02-07
Packaged: 2019-10-23 18:54:44
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,865
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17689016
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Kyoki777/pseuds/Kyoki777
Summary: When she was only eight years old she thought she had learned the value of never trusting strangers. Some lessons are harder to learn than others.





	Always

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you Shadowedcries and Wildkitsune for betaing

 

From an early age, children are taught about the dangers a stranger can bring upon them. They could bring harm to them. It was a lesson some never learned. A lesson that some had taught to them the hard way.

Hermione knew that all too well.

When she was eight years old one of her classmates, Tom, had disappeared. No one knew what had happened to him. She remembered how hysterical his parents had been, constantly on edge and as time went by, grief wore away their features.

 She had thought it strange, then, when the parents had congregated into an overprotective mass that preached stranger danger to them all; so terrified that one of them would be next.

 Hermione had not understood why people were so upset. Not at first. It was only when her mother pulled her aside that she truly understood.

 She would never forget the day her mother explained that Tom was missing; that he had been taken away by a stranger and people were looking for him. Hermione had shaken her head at her mother, not understanding how Tom could possibly be missing; she had been outside playing in the garden with him. She told her mother he had been with her all morning, not understanding why her mother had become so upset. Her father had come to help console her mother, telling Hermione to go play. She turned to go, but not before witnessing her mother finally break down into tears.

 She didn't understand at such a young age why her mother had tears in her eyes, how could she? It wasn’t until a few days later, when the body of young Tom was found, that she truly understood.

 The news had arrived during class: They had found Tom, but it was not the happy resolution everyone hoped for. The teacher’s grief had been thick, and it weighed heavily on the school. Tom had not been found alive and that was a difficult thing for school children to grasp.  

 A classmate that had been so full of life was suddenly... gone.

 Hermione had known something was wrong that day because Tom hadn't been with her that morning like he had been for the past few weeks. His presence through this whole ordeal soothed her nerves, made it all easier to deal with.  She had gotten used to him always being with her but his absence that day made it seem so real. He was really gone.

 The fact that Tom’s life had been snuffed out so easily hit her like a ton of bricks. It was like her whole world had crashed around her, everything she thought she had known, every ounce of security she had that she was safe, died with him that day.

 Her parents had been besides themselves, unsure on how to console their daughter. They noticed how roughly she had taken the death of her classmate, but they could only watch in frustration as their once bright and vibrant child seemed to draw into herself. She wouldn't speak, wouldn't eat.

 Hermione barely even spoke a word… It was like _their_ child had been taken.

 Then one day, days after Tom was found, she suddenly was back to normal. They didn’t know why, they really didn't care why; all that mattered was she was back and full of life.

 She never told them what had changed that night, in truth, she doubted they would believe her.

 She had been lying in bed, thinking of him. She missed him, wished he was there, but she had been to his funeral and seen him in the casket. She watched numbly as he had been lowered into the ground. It had been the finality that tore her apart. She watched dirt pile over his coffin.

 Tom was never coming back.

 She cried as those thoughts consumed her again, the helplessness she felt had been too much.  She heard his voice, whispering her name. She had ignored it at first, knowing it hadn't been real. She shut her eyes tightly and sobs wracked her small body. The voice only became louder as it was ignored, demanding her attention. What she _couldn’t_ ignore was the feeling of her bed sinking as if another body had lowered onto it, nor could she ignore how cold fingers smoothed down her hair.

  _Brown eyes flew open to come in contact with blue._

 “ _Tom?”_

 Hermione remembered being so confused as she looked up at the boy she knew to be dead. Tom had admitted to her that he was dead and that he had seen his body being uncovered. He had been angry, confused and lost.

 She asked him why he had left, tears in her eyes. He had flashed her a smile, had apologized. He told her that it was her sadness that had called to him, that had made him find his way back to her. He promised her that night that he would never leave her again.

 He would be there with her. _Always_.

 In the years that followed, Tom kept his word. When he was alive, he had only been her classmate, but in death he became her closest friend. He was her best friend and the one person she could always depend on. Tom would listen when she needed it and challenge her when it came to school.

 It was when she reached puberty that a distance began to grow between them. Hermione had been unsure how to fix it. There were so many things she wanted to tell him, so many emotions she felt that she couldn't explain and he wouldn't be able to understand.

 She felt guilty that she was able to experience things he would never get to, and it only widened the gap between them. Soon she started to see him less and less, and by the time she turned seventeen she didn't see him at all.

 It made Hermione sad to know that her best friend was gone and, though she missed him dearly, life moved forward. She moved through school, got a part time job, graduated, and eventually went to college.

 She experienced great joy and even greater pain. And then one day, Tom’s loss had slipped from her thoughts, his memory tucked away safely in the back of her mind.

 It was on her birthday that she saw him again, for the first time in five years.

 She had been ordering coffee when she had seen the familiar, well-groomed black hair. He was sitting across from a man who looked a few years older than her. At first, she thought she was seeing things, but the boy looked up, those familiar blue eyes catching her own and then he disappeared.

 She thought about going up to the man, surely it was a sign of some sort? Why would her best friend suddenly appear on her Twenty first birthday in front of a man she didn't know? He had never led her wrong before, why would he now?

 In the end fear got the best of her, the voice in her head that warned her about strangers was too strong. She left the coffee shop and convinced herself that she had been seeing things, after all.

 Tom was gone.

 Had she not been so concerned with the brief appearance of Tom, she might had noticed that the man had been watching her as she left. Perhaps she would have realized that this man followed her home that night.

 There might have been a chance that she would still be alive today. Instead, she watched as the stranger wrapped her body in plastic to keep her blood from seeping into the cloth interior of his car and threw her remains into the trunk.

 It had all happened to fast, one minute she had been getting in the shower so she could get ready for dinner with her parents and the next she was chained to a table, the man from the coffee shop circling her like a wild animal ready to pounce on its prey.

 She had begged the man to let her go, cried as his knife cut into her to paint her porcelain skin maroon. He refused to let her go, even as she pleaded for her life.

 ~*~

_“Stop, please stop!” the words were a desperate cry pulled from her mouth even as red-hot pain scorched her body. The attacker was slicing again, the dagger red with her blood. She was sobbing, trying to get away from the horror that had become her life, but it was no use._

  _The blond man smiled cruelly down at her, ignoring her plea as he dragged his blade against her skin, dragging the dagger from her navel to her clavicle. This cut was deeper, and she felt the warm hot liquid streaming down her sides, even as her vision began to blur. The man’s brown eyes were absorbing the scene before them with hunger._

  _“Why?” The word seemed to grab his attention where her pleas for him to stop had not. He blinked at her, as if trying to process the question. “Why me?” Even though her mind was slipping she knew the man was smiling at her._

  _“It_ **_had_ ** _to be you.”_

  _“I’ve watched you for weeks, you were_ **_perfect_ ** _.” The way he was looking at her now sent shivers down her spine, “I’m so grateful he introduced us.”_

  _“He wouldn't let me kill you until today. He was right of course, he has always been right. It’s more special when it’s your birthday.”_

  _His words didn't make sense, he sounded mad._

  _Had her mind been clearer she would have felt fear that he knew her birthday, but she only felt numbness. Her mind was beginning to feel fuzzy from the blood loss. She didn't understand._

  _“Who?” she whispered the question “Who would want me dead? Why?”_

  _At first, she wasn't sure he heard her, but then he flashed her a grin, his eyes falling toward the only figure in the room._

_Her eyes followed him, looking at the figure of the boy she had loved so much as a child. The last thing she saw was the smile on his handsome face before her world turned black._

 ~*~

 She watched the stranger get into the car, her body secure in the trunk before he drove away. She didn’t need to look beside her to know that Tom was there.

 “Why?” she whispered as the car left her line of sight. A small hand slipped into her own, causing her to look at the boy she had once thought of as her best friend.

 His handsome face seemed darker than she remembered. Malice embedded itself in his features and slowly, the boy she had once loved, transformed into a stranger before her very eyes.

 “You left me after you promised we would be together forever.” The fingers that gripped hers tightened to the point of pain.

 His claws were in her now, and she knew in her heart of hearts there was no escape.

 As if he read her mind, he flashed a smile that froze her very soul. “Now, you can never leave me again.”

  
  



End file.
